After a tense standoff, it was David who broke the suffocating silence.
His voice carried a trace of weary confusion: “Why, Sage… why would you do this?”
The one called “Sage” slowly raised his head.
His face, unexpectedly, was calm, even tinged with a worldly detachment.
He gazed at David steadily. “From the very beginning, I never surrendered.”
“I knew your wizardly rationality meant Elosia’s civilians would live better under your rule. And I admit, I was powerless to stop your invasion.”
“But…” His voice turned low and resolute, “my dignity would never allow me to just give up! So, when I confirmed all of Elosia’s survivors had been fully transformed into wizard-world humans… I could finally begin my revenge!”
As his words fell, a chilling blood-red glow slowly rose from the ground beneath him!
Countless intricate, malevolent runes spread like living creatures from his feet.
The glow surged outward, faster and faster, forming a colossal blood-colored array that engulfed the entire island!“Hahaha!”
The Sage’s demeanor finally turned slightly manic!
He spread his arms, as if embracing his triumph, and roared at David and Jie Ming, “Thanks to your delay outside, I’ve completed the final ritual!”
“Now! The ritual is active! You can never stop it!!”
“You! Why would you do this?!” David’s face twisted in shock and disbelief, pointing at the Sage, his voice a hoarse roar, as if unable to accept the cruel reality.
Jie Ming, watching David’s reaction, blinked.
Then, his face mirrored David’s, a mix of anger and fear, as if truly stunned by this sudden turn.
The two rushed forward in apparent panic, trying to stop the Sage.
But a transparent energy barrier rose from the array’s edge, blocking them fiercely.
“It’s useless! Give up!”
The Sage, at the array’s center, ignored the “defeated” duo’s clumsy performance.
He closed his eyes, chanting an ancient, sinister incantation.
All the vast life force he’d collected through pseudo-wizards over two years, like an ocean, was offered without reserve to the massive array beneath him!
His sole purpose: to open a “Gate of Destruction” to the lair of a forbidden entity!
As the immense life energy gathered, the space above the island twisted and folded like boiling water.
David’s face filled with lament and grief. He pounded the barrier, his voice desperate: “How could you… how dare you?! This… this is…”
The Sage opened his mouth, ready to mock David’s naive folly and savor the thrill of revenge.
But suddenly, beyond the barrier, David and Jie Ming’s expressions shifted from sorrow, anger, and fear
to an icy, mocking smirk!“…this is perfect!”
David’s terrifying grin accompanied those words.
The Sage’s mind froze at those final three words.
At that moment, the space above was torn apart by the immense energy.
A black, abyss-like spatial vortex was forcibly opened!
In that instant, seeing their eerie smiles, a sharp pang of dread struck the Sage.
But the arrow was on the string, no turning back. The ritual was in its final stage, leaving no time to ponder what was wrong!
From the vortex’s other side came a vast, majestic, and tyrannical voice.
With it, a terrifying mental wave of destruction and finality.
Even a sliver of this wave made the entire island tremble!
Within it, a clear, arrogant message reached everyone’s minds:
[Hmph… another fool dares summon my name… these mortal creatures truly bore me!]
The Sage suppressed his unease, shouting excitedly, “Great Lord of Destruction! Descend upon this corrupt world! Annihilate these vile wizards who defile life!”
At the Sage’s flattery, the “Destroyer Demon” beyond the vortex radiated supreme arrogance.
The oppressive aura grew, as if preparing a grand descent.
But when he heard “wizards,” a term all too familiar, his oceanic mental wave… faltered.
Like an engine grinding to a halt.
After a brief silence, the “Destroyer Demon’s” mental wave pulsed with shock!
As if he couldn’t believe what he’d “heard”!
Then, a roar ten times more terrifying, filled with fear and fury, erupted from the vortex’s other side: “Wizards?! Are you trying to kill me?!!!”
What followed left the Sage dumbfounded.
The once-arrogant “Destroyer Demon” retracted his mental presence at a speed countless times faster than his arrival!
The barely-opened vortex began shrinking and collapsing rapidly!
He didn’t even spare a parting threat, as if terrified of lingering.
His frantic retreat left the Sage dazed.
Yet, as the black vortex neared collapse, a pair of hands appeared.
Ordinary, yet carrying the weight of an entire plane, they materialized abruptly at the vortex’s edges!
Though a physical hand and an ethereal gate, their contact was as solid as steel clashing!
With a single forceful push…
Buzz—!
A deafening spatial hum rang out as those hands, with a simple motion, stabilized the collapsing vortex!
Under the Sage’s gaze—shifting from shock to confusion to utter despair—and David and Jie Ming’s mocking, almost pitying smirks, a figure in plain black wizard robes appeared beside the vortex.
With his own hands, he forcibly held open the ethereal gate to another world!
The badge on his robe, gleaming with seven radiant stars, marked him as… a seventh-rank wizard!